


Faculty Retreat

by Rhaized



Series: Adventures of Mary and Marisa [11]
Category: His Dark Materials (TV), His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Genre: Academia, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Marisa is SUCH a tease, Mary can't handle it, Science Girlfriends, Teasing, Touching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-18 07:54:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29240166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rhaized/pseuds/Rhaized
Summary: Mary and Marisa are attending a faculty retreat and find themselves seated in the back of the room. To Mary's embarrassment, Marisa can't keep her hands to herself.
Relationships: Marisa Coulter/Mary Malone
Series: Adventures of Mary and Marisa [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2073954
Comments: 8
Kudos: 38





	Faculty Retreat

It was right as the department chair was starting his welcome speech that Mary felt Marisa's hand come to rest gently on her left thigh. 

Everything stopped in that moment for Mary. She felt her vision pulsate and then narrow as she stared intently at Dr. Peters over by the podium of the rather large lecture hall. He was a balding man in his sixties or so who'd been their department head for a few years, as well as a faculty member in the department for what seemed like  _ eons.  _ He opened up the faculty retreat stating how excited he was to welcome the physics department back for another academic year at Oxford during a time of what he was  _ sure  _ would be profound discoveries and advanced academic engagement. Mary heard a faint ringing in her ears as he prattled on, all too  _ painfully  _ aware of Marisa's hand sitting there perfectly still and warm on top of Mary's jeans. 

Marisa and Mary had fallen into what Mary could only describe as the most whirlwind of a relationship she'd ever experienced in her entire thirty eight years of life. It started slow, which might seem surprising given the intensity that is Marisa Coulter. Marisa joined the lab shortly after they first met all that time ago, her past and credentials still a mystery to Mary but apparently unimportant as the university went ahead and hired her. They worked together as colleagues, sharing results and asking questions and occasionally reading one another's work. Marisa was observant and brilliant and so incredibly productive. Mary couldn't help but be impressed with her. 

After a few months, they started to grab coffee together during the day, which turned into drinks after work with the whole team. Then it somehow became just the  _ two  _ of them heading out on the town and, after one night of five too many glasses of wine, they'd ended up making out in the back seat of an Uber. Shortly after that they became "involved," whatever  _ that  _ was supposed to mean. They didn't discuss it and they didn't tell anyone about it, but they spent all their time together. Marisa practically lived with Mary, her golden monkey daemon getting his own room and space à la Mary's office. They were a "thing" as a thing ever could be and as fast as it could possibly become it. 

That was Marisa, as Mary had come to understand her: cold and calculating while entirely unpredictable and, surprisingly, warm and affectionate when you least expected it.

Or, at the current moment, when you perhaps didn't  _ want  _ to expect it (yet, oddly enough, still enjoyed it anyway, in spite of yourself). 

As Mary listened to Dr. Peters get on with the agenda for the morning, she felt Marisa's hand shift slightly. Mary didn't dare move, look,  _ breathe,  _ but she saw from her peripheral vision that Marisa was leaning closer to her. Mary sensed something stir in her just then—something resembling nervousness but, the more Mary thought about it, almost like  _ excitement.  _

But she  _ shouldn't;  _ this wasn't  _ appropriate!  _ Mary hated herself for the way she was  _ feeling,  _ and how it seemed at odds with herself. 

"And, of course," Dr. Peters was saying as Marisa's hand inched just a  _ hair  _ closer to her, now resting fully on top of her leg instead of just at the edge, "last year we welcomed our newest colleague to the department, Marisa Coulter!" 

It happened so fast that Mary could barely take it in. She panicked,  _ actually  _ panicked as she was  _ sure  _ someone was going to see Marisa's hand placed so intimately where it  _ really  _ shouldn't be in public. But Marisa's hand was gone as everyone started clapping and looked back at her. Marisa smiled, her teeth flashing with confidence and warmth as Mary struggled to collect herself before starting to clap, too, aware that her face must be unbearably red. If she wasn't mistaken, she almost saw a flash of  _ smugness  _ in Marisa's blue depths as she just barely glanced over at her, smile wide as the applause began to die down and everyone turned their attention back to Dr. Peters.

Mary thought that would be the end of it. Marisa had her fun, got a rouse and a good blush out of Mary. She was probably very satisfied and would taunt her endlessly about it once they got home from work. Such a  _ tease _ ! But to Mary's shock, the woman's hand was  _ back  _ just a few minutes later, and somehow  _ closer  _ to where it certainly should  _ not  _ be. 

It was too much. It was all too, too much. 

Mary wanted very badly to whisper to her and ask her what the  _ hell  _ she thought she was doing, but she didn't want to draw any more attention to her current predicament. It was all so terribly obvious and out in the open, Marisa's hand resting there on Mary's thigh. Anyone could see it if they looked over at them and looked down. They were in the very back, of course, and everyone was looking ahead of them at Dr. Peters (who was too busy looking at his notes and the screen to pay them any mind), but still Mary worried. And Marisa  _ knew  _ that Mary worried. So of course she kept moving her hand further and further inward before squeezing  _ just  _ the teensiest amount. 

In a moment of panic mixed with a stubborn sort of resistance, Mary decided to push Marisa's hand away by moving her knee and scooting her chair over to the right. Marisa's hand was banished as Mary sat further away from her, eyes trained diligently over at the projector and the poorly-made PowerPoint Dr. Peters was using to overview the department's budget for the year. She sensed Marisa stiffen beside her, felt the air in the room change around them. Marisa was  _ affronted, displeased.  _ Mary found herself grinning slightly, both in relief to be free from the uncompromising situation and satisfaction at having thrown Marisa's game back at her. 

_ You have to wait,  _ Mary tossed at her with her eyes then, allowing them to flicker at her for only two seconds before returning to the front of the room. Mary thought she heard a puff of annoyance from Marisa's direction, although of course it was brief and Mary began to wonder if she'd only imagined it. 

Twenty minutes later, however, something  _ else  _ happened: Dr. Peters flicked off the lights to show some kind of informational video from someone's lab. 

As soon as the lights were off Mary felt Marisa's hot breath against her ear. It was strange because Mary didn't hear the sound of her chair moving closer but knew it was somehow the case, as Marisa was sitting right next to her and her chest brushed against Mary's left shoulder. Mary felt the heat practically radiate from Marisa's body as she pressed closer to her. 

"Hey," came that low, raspy voice, and Mary felt chills, actual  _ chills  _ erupt from her neck down to her arm. 

Marisa was impossible, and unprofessional, and inappropriate. And Mary  _ loved  _ it. 

"Marisa, we're working," Mary breathed back, willing herself to lean away again but knowing perfectly well that she wouldn't. 

"I know," was the easy response. Mary could feel as well as hear Marisa smile against Mary's neck just below her ear as her lips moved to kiss her there. Mary squirmed, her eyes bulging as she gazed at the faculty sitting just in front of them. They couldn't see anything except their faint silhouettes from the beam of the projector, but still Mary  _ worried.  _ Oh, how she worried as she felt Marisa continue her assault on her neck before feeling her hand find itself back on Mary's thigh, stroking it lightly. 

Someone could  _ see.  _ Then they would  _ know.  _

But, did Mary perhaps  _ want  _ them to know…? 

Sooner than Mary would have anticipated the film ended and Marisa moved away again, back on her side of the two-person table as the lights flicked on. There wasn't a hair out of place as she stared ahead at Dr. Peters as if she'd been doing so the entire time. She was so poised and proper, engaged and earnest. She was a tidy, intelligent scholar doing her part. 

It was _infuriating,_ how _good_ Marisa was at this. She was good at everything, it seemed. Especially at driving Mary wild. 

The rest of the retreat progressed in surprising harmlessness. Marisa stayed on her side of the table as she took notes, eyes trained downward and then forward. She even participated in a heated discussion about how many doctoral students to admit this year, citing the most recent national report on the awful academic job market and pointing out how stressed and overwhelmed every lab head was. It was impressive, how much sense she made and how everyone listened carefully to her. It looked like she'd prepared for it and was fully engrossed in it. 

What had happened? How did Marisa go from lust to lab so quickly, Mary could only wonder? 

"Hey," Mary said as the meeting ended and they began gathering their belongings. It'd been a painful three hours for  _ multiple  _ reasons, yet still Mary found herself having survived it. She was exhausted, really, but still so curious about what was going on with Marisa and what was behind all of her behaviors. 

Marisa picked up her notebook and tucked it carefully into her leather handbag, giving Mary barely a glance. "Hey yourself."

"What are you  _ doing?"  _ Mary pressed as Marisa dropped her pen in her bag, stood up, and then pushed her chair in before heading to the door, her black skirt wisping out behind her. 

_ "Marisa!"  _ Mary hissed as Marisa ignored her and she followed the other woman out, shoving her stuff loosely in her bag and advancing to a jog in order to keep up. They were in some random building across campus and Mary hadn't the slightest clue where they were going, but that didn't seem to stop Marisa. The woman moved swiftly and without hesitation, as always. Mary wouldn't have known this was the first time she'd ever been in this hall. Marisa acted like she  _ owned  _ it, like it was built entirely for her. 

"Dr. Malone," Marisa finally let out, stopping dead in her tracks and spinning on her heel so suddenly that it caused Mary to literally crash into her. "I am  _ working.  _ What is it that you need?" 

Mary stopped for a second to recover, leaning away from Marisa after they'd collided there in that narrow little hallway (this was  _ so  _ embarrassing!). She then looked up to consider Marisa. Her face was unreadable as she glared down at Mary, her skin gleaming yellow from the harsh fluorescent lighting. Mary studied it a few more moments and then smiled, catching the gleam in Marisa's blue gaze as she stared back at Mary passively yet devilishly. 

"You're infuriating," Mary let out, moving to slap at Marisa's arm. The other woman let out a laugh and then entwined their arms together, swinging them slowly in the air. Mary checked around them, feeling herself start to worry again, but no one was there. They were all alone. 

"Shall we head back to  _ work  _ now, darling?" the brunette asked, voice impossibly sweet. 

"Yes," Mary said, finding herself lost in Marisa's gaze and her touch and her scent and her entire presence. She felt as if she were drowning in it while at the same time needing it for oxygen. That was the effect that was Marisa Coulter. "Let's get back to work now. But  _ please  _ watch where you're going, for crying out loud."

**Author's Note:**

> Again, I don't know what this is but I just couldn't help writing more about our science girlfriends 😌


End file.
